*
Dionysos' mother Semele forced Zeus to appear before her in
his full glory, and was consumed by the fire of the god's
lightning-bolts. Zeus rescued their unborn child Dionysos and
sewed him inside his thigh for the rest of the term. When he
was born, Hermes carried the boy off to the foster care of his
three aunts or the Nymphs of Mt Nysa.
* Dionysos, on reaching adulthood, travelled the world
teaching men the arts of viticulture and winemaking. Later,
forming a fabulous army of Bakkhantes and demi-gods he made
War on the Indians of the east.
* When Hephaistos had trapped his mother Hera in a cursed
throne, Dionysos got him drunk and persuaded him to return to
Olympos and free her. The pair entered the home of the gods
together and claimed their seats amongst twelve great Olympian
gods.
* Dionysos travelled to the underworld to fetch his dead mother
Semele, brought her back to Olympos as the goddess Thyone.

LOVE STORIES

*
Dionysos discovered Ariadne on the island of Naxos, where she
had been abandoned by Theseus, and made her his immortal wife.
Dionysos placed her marriage crown amongst the stars as the
constellation Corona.
* Dionysos loved a handsome young Satyr named Ampelos who was
gored to death while attempting to ride a wild bull. From his
blood Dionysos created the first grape-vine.
* The god seduced the proud virgin Aura by producing a spring
of wine, and then lying with her in her drunken stupor.
Discovering her pregnancy she went on a man-slaying rampage,
and bearing twins tore the first child limb from limb.

FAVOUR & BLESSINGS

*
Dionysos rewarded his childhood nurses, the Nysiades, by
restoring their youth and placing amongst the stars as the
constellation Hyades.
* Dionysos taught the art of wine-making to the Athenian lord
Ikarios. Unfortunately some shepherds, thinking he had
poisoned them, slew him with rocks. Dionysos sent a plague
upon the Athenians until they atoned for the crime and
honoured Ikarios and his daughter as heroes.
* Dionysos was hospitably entertained by King Oineus of
Aitolia, who even allowed him to lie in the bed of his wife
Althaia. In return the god bestowed upon him the vine and
taught him the art of viticulture.

WRATH & PUNISHMENT

*
King Pentheus of Thebes denied the divinity of Dionysos and
forbade his subjects from honouring him. When he went to spy
upon the revels of the Bakkhantes upon Mt Kithairon, the god
drove his followers into a mad fury, and they tore Pentheus
limb from limb.
* King Lykourgos of Thrake attacked Dionysos and his followers
with a cattle-whip, driving them to seek refuge with Thetis in
the sea. Dionysos returned and drove him to madness,
dismembering his own son, and eventually being slain by wild
beasts on Mt Pangaios.
* Dionysos was captured by Tyrrhenian pirates as he sought
passage to the island of Naxos. He enveloped the ship in vines
and summoned forth phantom beasts. The pirates leapt overboard
and were transformed into dolphins.
* The Minyades, princesses of Orkhomenos, refused to join in
the celebrations of Dionysos, calling him a false god. In
anger he transformed them into bats.

PICTURES

I)
Depictions of Dionysos in Greek Vase Painting

These
images of Dionysos come from Ancient Greek Vases, painted
approximately
2,500 years ago. NB Click on thumbnails to view full-size
images.

II)
Other Classical Depictions of Dionysos

Dionysos was also depicted in classical statues, stone
reliefs, frescoes and coins.

SELECTED
MYTHS (short versions)

I)
The Birth of Dionysos

"Zeus fell in love with Semele and slept with her,
promising her anything she wanted, and keeping it all
from Hera. But Semele was deceived by Hera into asking
Zeus to come to her as he came to Hera during their
courtship. So Zeus, unable to refuse, arrived in her
bridal chamber in a chariot with lightning flashes and
thunder, and sent a thunderbolt at her. Semele died of
fright, and Zeus grabbed from the fire her six-month
aborted baby, which he sewed into his thigh. After Semeles
death the remaining daughters of Kadmos circulated the
story that she had slept with a mortal, thereafter
accusing Zeus, and because of this had been killed by a
thunderbolt.
At the proper time Zeus loosened the stitches and gave
birth to Dionysos, whom he entrusted to Hermes. Hermes
took him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring
him up as a girl. Incensed, Hera inflicted madness on
them, so that that Athamas stalked and slew his elder son Learkhos on
the conviction that he was a dear, while Ino threw Melikertes into a
basin of boiling water, and then, carrying both the basin and the corpse
of the boy, she jumped to the bottom of the sea ... As for Zeus, he escaped Heras anger by changing
Dionysos into a baby goat. Hermes took him to the Nymphai
of Asian Nysa, whom Zeus in later times places among the
stars and named the Hyades." Source: Apollodorus, The
Library 3.26-29

II) Dionysos
& the Death of Pentheus

"They say that Pentheus [king of Thebes]
treated Dionysos spitefully, his crowning outrage being that he
went to Kithairon, to spy upon the women, and climbing up a tree
beheld what was done. When the women detected Pentheus, they
immediately dragged him down, and joined in tearing him, living
as he was, limb from limb. Afterwards ... the Pythian priestess commanded them by an oracle to discover
that tree and to worship it equally with the god." Source: Pausanias
2.2.6-

III) Dionysos & the Impiety of Lykourgos

"The son of Dryas, Lykourgos the powerful, did not live long; he who tried to
fight with the gods of the bright sky, who once drove the fosterers of rapturous Dionysos headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken
with an ox-goad by murderous Lykourgos, while Dionysos in terror dived into the
salt surf, and Thetis took him to her bosom, frightened, with the strong shivers
upon him at the man’s blustering. But the gods who live at their ease were
angered with Lykourgos and the son of Kronos [Zeus] struck him to blindness, nor
did he live long afterwards, since he was hated by all the immortals." Source:
Homer, The Iliad
6.129

IV) Dionysos & the Wine of Ikarios

"When Father Liber [Dionysos] went out to visit men in order to demonstrate the sweetness and pleasantness of his fruit, he came to the generous hospitality of Icarius and Erigone. To them he gave a skin full of wine as a gift and bade them spread the use of it in all the other lands. Loading a wagon, Icarius with his daughter Erigone and a dog Maera came to shepherds in the land of Attica, and showed them the kind of sweetness wine had. The shepherds, made drunk by drinking immoderately, collapsed, and thinking that Icarius had given them some bad medicine, killed him with clubs. The dog Maera, howling over the body of the slain Icarius, showed Erigone where her father lay unburied. When she came there, she killed herself by hanging in a tree over the body of her father. Because of this, Father Liber [Dionysos] afflicted the daughters of the Athenians with alike punishment. They asked an oracular response from Apollo concerning this, and he told them they had neglected he deaths of Icarius and Erigone. At this reply they exacted punishment from the shepherds, and in honour of Erigone instituted a festival day of swinging
."
-Hyginus Fabulae 130

V) Dionysos & the Tyrrhenian Pirates

"Dionysos appeared on a jutting headland by the shore of
the
fruitless sea, seeming like a stripling in the first
flush of
manhood: his rich, dark hair was waving about him,
and on his
strong shoulders he wore a purple robe. Presently
there came
swiftly over the sparkling sea Tyrsenoi pirates
on a well-
decked ship - a miserable doom led them on. When
they saw him
they made signs to one another and sprang out
quickly, and
seizing him straightway, put him on board their ship
exultingly;
for they thought him the son of heaven-nurtured kings.
They
sought to bind him with rude bonds, but the bonds
would not hold
him, and the withes fell far away from his hands and
feet: and he
sat with a smile in his dark eyes. Then the helmsman
understood
all and cried out at once to his fellows and said: `Madmen! What god is this whom you have
taken and
bind, strong that he is? Not even the well-built ship
can carry
him. Surely this is either Zeus or Apollon who has the
silver
bow, or Poseidon, for he looks not like mortal men
but like the
gods who dwell on Olympos. Come, then, let us set him
free upon
the dark shore at once: do not lay hands on him, lest
he grow
angry and stir up dangerous winds and heavy squalls.'
So said he: but the captain chided him ... He had mast and
sail hoisted
on the ship, and the wind filled the sail and the
crew hauled
taut the sheets on either side. But soon strange
things were
seen among them. First of all sweet, fragrant wine
ran streaming
throughout all the black ship and a heavenly smell
arose, so that
all the seamen were seized with amazement when they
saw it. And
all at once a vine spread out both ways along the top
of the sail
with many clusters hanging down from it, and a dark
ivy-plant
twined about the mast, blossoming with flowers, and
with rich
berries growing on it; and all the thole-pins were
covered with
garlands. When the pirates saw all this, then at last
they bade
the helmsman to put the ship to land. But the god
changed into a
dreadful lion there on the ship, in the bows, and
roared loudly:
amidships also he showed his wonders and created a
shaggy bear
which stood up ravening, while on the forepeak was
the lion
glaring fiercely with scowling brows. And so the
sailors fled
into the stern and crowded bemused about the right-minded
helmsman, until suddenly the lion sprang upon the
master and
seized him; and when the sailors saw it they leapt
out overboard
one and all into the bright sea, escaping from a
miserable fate,
and were changed into dolphins. But on the helmsman Dionysos had mercy and held him back and made him
altogether happy." Source: Homeric Hymn 7 to Dionysus

VI) The Wedding of Dionysos & Ariadne

"[Theseus] carried off Ariadne [from
Krete] and sailed out unobserved during the night, after which he
put in at the island which at that time was called Dia, but is now
called Naxos. At this same time, the myths relate, Dionysos showed
himself on the island, and because of the beauty of Ariadne he took
the maiden away from Theseus and kept her as his lawful wife, loving
her exceedingly. Indeed, after her death he considered her worthy of
immortal honours because of the affection he had for her, and placed
among the stars of heaven the ‘Crown of Ariadne." Source:
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 4.61.5

VI) The Journey of Dionysos to the
Underworld

"Liber [Dionysos]
received permission from his father [Zeus] to bring back his
mother Semele from the lower world, and in seeking a
place of descent had come to the land of the Argives, a
certain Hyplipnus met him, a man worthy of that
generation, who was to show the entrance to Liber [Dionysos]
in answer to his request So then, when Liber [Dionysos] came
to that place and was about to descend, he left the
crown, which he had received as a gift from Venus [Aphrodite],
at that place which in consequence is called Stephanos,
for he was unwilling to take it with him for fear the
immortal gift of the gods would be contaminated by
contact with the dead. When he brought his mother back
unharmed, he is said to have placed the crown in the
stars as an everlasting memorial." Source: Hyginus,
Astronomica 2.5

FURTHER
INFO (15 detailed pages on Dionysos)

NOTE: Many of
these sections are currently under construction (they will be
available in early 2005)